Increased levels of bass in popular music recordings 1955–2016 and their relation to loudness

Abstract

The sound of recorded music has changed over time. These changes can be captured by different audio features. Over the past decades, popular songs have shown clear increases in RMS energy and loudness, but far less attention has addressed whether this upward trend is more prevalent in specific frequency bands, such as the bass. Bass frequencies are especially important for movement induction, such as foot tapping or dancing, and might offer competitive advantages of capturing attention and increasing engagement. Here, the authors examined the evolution of audio features, such as root-mean-square (RMS) energy, loudness, and spectral fluctuations (changes in the audio signal's frequency content) in ten frequency bands from songs on the Billboard Hot 100 charts from 1955 to 2016. Over time, RMS energy and loudness increased while dynamic range decreased. The largest increases were found in the bass range: Spectral flux increased most strongly in the lowest frequency bands (0–100 Hz), and when controlling for overall RMS, only the lowest frequency bands showed an increase over time. The upward trend of bass could reflect changes in technology and style; but based on links between bass and movement, it is likely a widespread technique to increase engagement and contribute to chart success.

Neural Correlates of Listening to Varying Synchrony Between Beats in Samba Percussion and Relations to Feeling the Groove

“…Consistent with this interpretation, found that samples of loud techno music (above 90 dB SPL) elicited a greater vestibular responses associated with pleasurable self-motion. Also in alignment with our results, Hove et al (2020) found that listeners gave music clips higher groove and enjoyment ratings when the clips were relatively loud (see also Hove et al, 2019 for effects of loudness) and when auditory presentation was accompanied by additional tactile stimulation. However, in contrast to these findings, Stupacher et al (2016) reported that sound intensity had no effect on groove ratings.…”

Feel the bass: Music presented to tactile and auditory modalities increases aesthetic appreciation and body movement.

“…Five "old" clips were originally released in the 1970s or 1980s, and five "new" clips were from the 2000s or 2010s. We included new clips for two reasons: (a) new clips should be more familiar and potentially more engaging for the undergraduate participants; and (b) bass levels have increased over time (Hove et al, 2019), and higher levels of bass in the new clips could yield stronger effects. Audio feature analyses revealed that the new clips had higher bass levels, and are presented in the online supplemental materials along with relations between audio features and other dependent measures.…”

“…Experiment 1 was run in a parked car-an ecologically valid listening space, with a small enclosed volume meant to heighten the tactile feeling produced by the subwoofer. We used both "old" and "new" musical clips, as new clips could be more engaging to the student participants and new songs tend to have higher bass levels (Hove, Vuust, & Stupacher, 2019). Participants tapped their finger along with each clip; we recorded body movement; and participants rated each clip for groove and enjoyment.…”

Motor performance in violin bowing: Effects of attentional focus on acoustical, physiological and physical parameters of a sound-producing action

“…Thus, low level acoustic features might be applied to violin sound to describe changes in tone production. For example, the root mean square (RMS) of an audio signal provides information about the loudness of the sound (Hove, Vuust, & Stupacher, 2019), roughness gives a measure of sensory dissonance (Eerola, Ferrer, & Alluri, 2012) , and spectral centroid can be considered a measure of the brightness of tone (Edgerton et al, 2014;Schoonderwaldt, 2009b).…”